Context in Los Angeles: 1970-1971
Aside from being segregated in the gallery setting, there was also a discussion going on about the distinction between east and west cost when it comes to black art. The same article from above complains that “westerners” were omitted from the show, most likely because the organizers, who were primarily from the East Coast, did not know them. Black artist recognition was therefore largely regional, and at this period did not extend to both coasts.
Not only within the geography of the United States was there a struggle over recognition across state lines, but also a controversy as to whether or not the galleries would recognize Black Art as Western art when it is inspired from the individuals’ heritage in the East. In the fall of 1971, LACMA installed an exhibit known as “Black Africa,” which housed art all inspired from the “dark continent” and how it has inspired so much art of the Western world. Despite the aim of the exhibition, some individuals still called the art savage and inferior to the art of the West and white people, unconsciously displaying racism.
It seems as though the most notable art by black Americans was not only seen as a “positive alternative to whatever else was going on in the ghetto”, but succinctly conveyed frustrations dealing with “the black man’s condition in America”. Black artists at the time were not solely making art for the sake of exhibitions and sales, but for their important messages resulting in experimental and entirely fresh work. By bringing common ideas and sentiments together about identity, heritage, and opportunity, the black art of this time started to become its own genre in addition to building community, as shown in a poster from Now Dig This!.
Especially noticeable after the Watts Riots in 1965, tension between police and black communities in Los Angeles was at an all time high. Leimert Park’s crime rate, like many other metropolitan and urban areas began to experience a rise. In addition, there were boycotts aiming for a higher percentage of black employees in certain fields, requests for better funding and education in black schools, and crime that was specifically hurtful to the black community. By March of 1971, black police officers created a program called the Oscar Joel Bryant Association to increase support of the LAPD in black communities.
Many articles relay an increased awareness in the economical inequality and racial bigotry against black Americans. Between 1970-1971, attention was being drawn to the silent racism that was hurting the various aspects of black lives such as work, education, and art. Some individuals thought, “The black artist today has an obligation and a responsibility to be the clarion of black life…Artists have for long periods of time had to paint to the satisfaction of critics and galleries rather than the very community that they were from.”
With as many minority gallery shows as were possible for that time, it would only be expected that the black arts would have a clear role in critiquing mainstream society as well as community building. Since art had such a personal level and aspect about it, art by the black artists was naturally more locally based, as it spoke directly with the artists’ life experiences from these specific communities.
